How to invoke the device Properties dialog box from the application or from a command prompt

Function prototype

                
   void DeviceProperties_RunDLL(
    HWND hwndStub,
    HINSTANCE hAppInstance,
    LPCTSTR lpCmdLine,
    int    nCmdShow
    )
   /*++ 
   Routine Description:
      This API opens the property pages for the specified device. 

      This function can be executed by means of a rundll command line and will have the following form:

         rundll32.exe devmgr.dll, DeviceProperties_RunDLL  <options>

      Arguments:

        hwndStub - Windows handle to receive any message boxes that might appear.

        hAppInstance - HINSTANCE.

        lpCmdLine - Command line options passed in (for example, /DeviceID <device instance Id>).

        nCmdShow - Flag that specifies how device manager should be shown when
               it is opened. It can be one of the SW_ values (for example, SW_SHOW).

   Return Value:

       none
   --*/

Command line options

The following command line options are accepted by the DeviceProperties_RunDLL function:

Note The option names, /DeviceId and /MachineName, are not case-sensitive.

• /DeviceId <device instance Id>
  This option specifies the device that the properties will be displayed for. The caller must specify the DeviceId. It can be retrieved from the registry or from Device Manager. For more information about how to configure the Device Manager to display the DeviceId information, see the "References" section.

• /MachineName <machine name>
  This option specifies the machine name where the device belongs to. This option is required if the function is used in an application in Windows 2000 operating system, that is, you must specify this option even the machine name is empty in the case of a local machine.

Invoke programmatically

To invoke the device Properties dialog box programmatically, you have to load Devmgr.dll and then obtain the address of the function. You also have to define a macro to make it map to an appropriate prototype (Unicode or Non-Unicode). Following is the sample code:

   #ifdef _UNICODE 
   #define DeviceProperties_RunDLL  "DeviceProperties_RunDLLW"
   typedef void (_stdcall *PDEVICEPROPERTIES)(
       HWND hwndStub,
       HINSTANCE hAppInstance,
       LPWSTR lpCmdLine,
       int    nCmdShow
       );

   #else
   #define DeviceProperties_RunDLL  "DeviceProperties_RunDLLA"
   typedef void (_stdcall *PDEVICEPROPERTIES)(
       HWND hwndStub,
       HHINSTANCE hAppInstance,
       LPSTR lpCmdLine,
       int    nCmdShow
       );
   #endif

   PDEVICEPROPERTIES pDeviceProperties;
   HINSTANCE  hDevMgr = LoadLibrary(_TEXT("devmgr.dll"));
   if (hDevMgr) {
       pDeviceProperties = (PDEVICEPROPERTIES)GetProcAddress((HMODULE)hDevMgr, 
                               DeviceProperties_RunDLL);
  }

   if (pDeviceProperties){
       pDeviceProperties(m_hWnd, hInst, _TEXT("/MachineName \"\" /DeviceID PCI\\VEN_8086\&DEV_2445\&SUBSYS_010E1028
                              \&REV_12\\3\&172E68DD\&0\&FD"), SW_SHOW);
  }

Invoke from a command prompt

To invoke the device Properties dialog box from a command prompt, run commands like the following commands:

• rundll32.exe devmgr.dll,DeviceProperties_RunDLL /DeviceID root\system\0000

• rundll32.exe devmgr.dll,DeviceProperties_RunDLL /MachineName "" /DeviceID root\system\0000

• rundll32.exe devmgr.dll,DeviceProperties_RunDLL /DeviceID "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2445 &SUBSYS_010E1028&REV_12\3&172E68DD&0&FD"

Note If there is an ampersand symbol (&) in the device instance ID, you must type double quotation marks around the ID.